Achieving Water Use Efficiency in Irrigation Districts

Abstract

Irrigation districts are challenging places to achieve efficient water use when the ultimate water users do not individually own the units of water they use. The consequence is that irrigators have difficulty seeing value in water unless they are applying it to their crops. This disconnect is a barrier to the establishment of appropriate signals, thereby leading to deficient conservation and lowered profit in most settings. Two policy avenues for improving these circumstances are examined. Primary attention is devoted to devising principles whereby a district’s redesigned water rates could foster greater profitability within the district. Such a pricing policy also identifies needed features of a second policy, a marketing strategy in which district-owned water rights are reassigned with a portion retained by the district. Implicit to both policies is careful regard for marginal conveyance losses associated with surface water delivery via canals.